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Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Review - 'Luke Cage', S01E04 - 'Step in the Arena'

With Luke Cage and his landlady, Connie
(Jade Wu), trapped beneath the rubble of what would have to be one of
the best named business establishments to ever appear in a work of
fiction ('Ghenghis Connie's'), the situation looks somewhat bleak –
not necessarily for Luke, of course (since, he remains as
indestructible as every), but certainly for Connie. With the 'present
day' story-line effectively contained for the moment, though, it also
seems that the season's fourth episode is the perfect time to finally
begin to delve into Luke Cage's so far largely unexplored history.
So, while in the present day we have Luke forced to reveal his
superhuman abilities to yet another person as he struggles to save an
injured Connie, we also have flashbacks to Luke's time in prison –
in a time before he actually acquired these abilities.

Of course, it's not actually Luke Cage
that we meet in these flashbacks – since, as fans of the character
might have already known, 'Luke Cage' isn't actually his real name
(although, as someone with only passing familiarity with the
character, I admit that this caught me by surprise). Instead, we are
introduced to Carl Lucas – an ex-police officer who has now found
himself in Seagate Prison. Here, we learn that, despite seemingly
being innocent of whatever crime saw him sent to prison in the first
place, Carl Lucas is still a man plagued by a sense of guilt for
whatever else he may have done – so, rather than continue to try to
prove his innocence, as someone else might, Carl seems resigned to
simply 'do his time'.

He is also a man who is clearly
determined to keep everyone at arm's length – firmly convinced that
trust, in a prison environment, is too dangerous a risk to take.
Despite himself, though, we soon learn that Carl was eventually won
over first by fellow inmate, 'Squabbles' (Craig Grant), then by the
prison's psychiatrist, Reva (Parisa Fitz-Henley) – who, as we
already know, Luke eventually married.

Early on, it is these scenes that Carl
Lucas shares with Squabbles and Reva that are the episode's strongest
element. Squabbles is, in fact, such a naturally entertaining
character that it seems a genuine shame that this single episode is
likely to be the only time we ever see him – and, Reva's mix of
intelligence and compassion makes it fairly obvious why he would fall
in love with her. Honestly, with the quality of these early scenes, I
think I would have been quite happy if there was no greater drama to
these flashbacks than a man simply trying to get through his time in
prison.

But, of course, things aren't so simple
for Carl Lucas – as, it turns out that Seagate is far from an
ordinary prison. Not only are there the persistent rumours of strange
experiments conducted on the prison grounds, but there is also the
fact that the prison guards seem to have arranged their own 'fight
club', of sorts – forcing inmates to fight for their own amusement.
On prison guard in particular, Albert Rackham (Chance Kelly), now
seems to have his sights set on Carl Lucas – convinced that he will
be able to make a small fortune by placing betting on the imposing
new inmate. Carl, naturally enough, has no interest in taking part –
but, when Rackham threatens those he has grown close to, he finds
that he has no real choice.

In the end, I think one of the major
problems I had with this episode is that it tried to cover too much
ground. Not only did we have Luke's present day efforts to rescue
both himself and Connie from the rubble of the restaurant, and Misty
Knight's continued investigation, but we also have what seems like
the entirety of Carl Lucas's time in prison. It simply felt like too
much for a single episode – and, the episode, as a whole, seems to
suffer as a result. While it all starts off well, eventually the
rapid transitions, and frequent time-jumps, result in an episode that
feels increasingly jumbled and unfocused.

Even worse, though, is the fact that
the moment in which Carl finally does acquire his superhuman
abilities (when a severe beating leaves him in desperate need of the
experimental treatment developed by the prison doctor), the entire
sequence comes across as very underwhelming. It was a sequence of
events which just felt sluggish and poorly developed, to me – and,
it definitely fell short of the epic 'hero moment' it was supposed to
be. Although, that being said, I will admit that the manner in which
the episode contrived to put Mike Colter in the character's original
comic-book outfit from the 1970s, following his super-powered escape
from prison, was both hilarious and a great moment for long-time
fans.

It's a shame, too, because the episode
does have its share of truly great moments. There were the episode's
various quiet character moments, which I have already mentioned, for
example – and, there was the entire sequence depicting Carl's
experiences while being forced to fight for the guards made for some
great moments of action. In the present day, too, Luke's very earnest
and genuine desire to save Connie was a great, character defining,
moment – and, it definitely felt like an important step on his path
toward becoming a true hero. The issues isn't with the quality of
what is presented – but, rather, with the fact that the episode
seems to feel the need to rush through so many of its various
plot-points. It simple felt as though the episode would have been
much more successful, if it had been better structured.

Of course, even though we have now seen
the series of events which lead to Carl Lucas becoming Luke Cage,
there are still plenty of questions left to be answered. Who was Carl
Lucas, for example? We now know that he was a police officer, and it
seems that he even served in the military – but, we don't know
anything about how he ended up in prison. And, what about Reva? How
involved was she, actually, in the secret experiments that were
conducted at Seagate Prison. And, of course, what about the
experiments, themselves? On the first season of Jessica Jones,
there were hints of some sort of possible connection between the
source of Jessica's, Kilgrave's, and possibly even Luke's superhuman
abilities (and, maybe even Matt Murdock's heightened senses, as well)
– so, it definitely seems as though the people behind these series'
are building toward something, here.

Obviously,
I don't want these background details to push aside the already very
compelling Harlem focused story that the season has been telling –
but, at the same time, I am still very interested in finding out the
answer to some of these questions.